ByTracey D. Samuelson, CorrespondentFebruary 18, 2010

Kathryn Lopez signs the Mount Vernon Statement at the Collingwood Library and Museum in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 17. The effort to get online signatures was suspended after a fake Hitler put his name down.

The symbolism was important. The document was called the Mount Vernon Statement, recalling the home of George Washington. "We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding," it began. Even the website was designed to look like parchment.

For a time, it appeared that the statement's first signer was Adolph Hitler, or at least someone referencing the German dictator while misspelling his first name. "Joe Dufus" got in his digital John Hancock and so did another would-be prankster, The American Prospect reported.

Organizers promptly pulled the plug on the virtual signing feature.

“There were a lot of people who were playing games and posting vulgarities,” says Keith Appell, senior vice president of CRC Public Relations, who is a spokesman for the group. “We didn’t want people to use it as a forum for junior high antics.”

One hopes that in 1789, when anonymity was a little harder to come by in a live constitutional assembly, Americans were more polite to one another – or at least, more respectful.

A conservative group is trying to get fellow conservatives to recommit to the ideals of the Founding Fathers. But its online effort at participatory democracy was undermined by Internet pranksters. Is the Internet too free? Let us know on Twitter @CSMecon.